Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Gully
erosion has sacked residents of Odongbu-Amogbeke and Akponge-Amoju in
Ezimo, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, while seven other
communities are being threatened by the menace.

Deputy Chairman of
the council, Mr Natty Eze, while conducting members of the Enugu State
Assembly Committee on Environment round the devastation site, said the
victims were now scattered in neighbouring villages.

Eze said the affected communities currently lacked lands for agriculture which was their main occupation.

He
listed other areas affected by the gully erosion to include
Mkporogwu-Ezimo-Ulo road and Ugwu Odor-Uruneya erosion site in Udunedem
ward.

Others
are the two erosion sites at Obollo-Afor, four at Amalla community,
Ama-Orba and Iyi-Opu Ozalla, which he said were beyond the financial
capacity of the local government.

Eze said the council had
controlled the erosion site at Umuezejo-Obollo-Afor and therefore
appealed to the state and Federal Governments to come to their aid to
curb the erosion.

He commended the assembly committee on
environment for their foresight in collating data on ecological
disasters threatening the state.

In his response, Chairman of the
committee, Mr Donatus Uzogbado, called on communities in the area to
imbibe and revive the culture of road maintenance by checking erosion at
its onset.

Uzogbado, while assuring them of the government’s
commitment to contolling erosion in the area however said waiting for
the government to do all things, even when people in the community were
facing environmental threats, was not the best.

Unconfirmed reports reaching us and circulating over the social
media has it that the authorities of the Joint Admission and
Matriculation Board, JAMB may end reducing the general UTME cut-off mark
for admission into various tertiary institutions in the country.

If this happens, this would definitely be as a result of mass
failure in the 2013 UTME Examination which saw only 10 candidates out of
the over 1.7million who wrote the examination score above 300 out of
the total of 400. We can only hope this information is true and will see
the light of the day.

In another development, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde has said
that candidates who feel aggrieved about their result can ask JAMB to
remark their script and if any error is found, JAMB would pay such
candidate a sum of One Hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000) but if found out that you score 150 they now mistakenly give you 160,170 you will not gain admission for the next 2 years think before you will come out for remark and be bold thanks.

Like we reported earlier, Bracket aren’t letting band member Vast‘s health issues slow them down…
The duo while in the UK hooked up with Clarence Peters to shoot their new video ‘Temperature‘ ironically in the hospital.
Watch below…

Testimony began Monday in the trial of a Mason man accused of molesting a toddler with a screwdriver.

Patrick
Parker, 49, is charged with two first-degree felony counts of rape and
two counts of gross sexual imposition, third-degree felonies.

Prosecutors
say Parker used a screwdriver and his fingers to sexually assault a
three-year-old child he was acquainted with and had access to on
overnight stays between July 2007 and June 2009.

The alleged crimes were reported about a year later, according to prosecutors.

The
girl’s mother testified Monday that she noticed behavioral changes in
the girl beginning in 2008 after overnight stays with Parker. In May
2009, she said the girl asked to give her a kiss on the mouth during
which she inserted her tongue in her mouth.

When she questioned her daughter, the girl reported Parker had kissed her in that manner, according to the mother’s testimony.

The
girl’s mother reported the incident to officials in Kentucky, where she
and her daughter lives. The alleged crimes occurred at Parker’s Mason
home, according to court documents.

Prosecutors say the girl two
years later disclosed to a licensed clinical psychologist that during
this time, Parker had digitally penetrated her with his fingers and a
device she described as a screwdriver.

The Enquirer generally
does not identify victims of sex crimes and is not identifying the
mother to protect her daughter’s identity.

In their opening
arguments, defense attorneys denied the accusations and say the girl’s
story is riddled with inconsistencies and suggest she may have been
coached or asked leading questions by interviewers.

Psychological
testing performed on Parker in 2009 after the accusations were made
revealed no signs of sexual deviancy, the attorneys told the judge.

Parker
faces a possible life sentence on the rape charges. The sentences for
the gross sexual imposition charges carry a maximum penalty of up to
five years in prison on each count.